Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Ms. O'Brien said the WEC had established working agreements and those were posted on its website. She said that the subcommittees had members who were not part of the larger collaborative because they were just interested in a specific issue. She pointed out that all of the WEC and subcommittee meetings were open to the public and there was enough public scrutiny to ensure that if any issue was presented to the collaborative, it would be addressed. She explained the WEC included so many government partners because of the in-kind donations of technical expertise and support they provided. Mr. Zako asked if Ms. Bettman was aware of a particular person in the community who could represent access management. He felt that several committee members, including himself, did advocate for access management. He said that freight interests were represented, but rail was not a major topic at this time; a rail representative could be invited to participate if rail became more relevant to the process. Mr. Clark asked for more information about the shared goals of the WEC and what it hoped to accomplish. He had heard discussion of both improving the flow of traffic and minimizing vehicle trips and needed to better understand the collaborative's objectives. He imagined that at some point in the process it would be desirable to have more involvement from the State and perhaps include State representatives and senators. He also saw the potential for rail to change the dynamics dramatically in West Eugene. Ms. O'Brien said the idea of the WEC was to improve transportation and access in West Eugene while taking into account the implications of those improvements for land use and the environment and thus avoid the type of problems that resulted in elimination of the West Eugene Parkway. Mr. Clark observed that 1,200 new houses were being built in Veneta and if each house had one or two cars, he questioned how that would be accommodated while trying to minimize trips. He hoped that the process would result in solutions that were practical and widely supported. Mr. Zako read the WEC purpose statement. He recognized that problems in West Eugene were very difficult and it would be disingenuous to suggest the collaborative would come up with a solution to all of them. He said the advantage of the WEC was that people were not fighting each other; they were all on the same side of the table to try to solve the problems. He expected that the process would result in a package of solutions that was more comprehensive than any one agency or jurisdiction could produce. Mr. Pryor emphasized that the collaborative was trying to remove the adversarial aspect from the transpor- tation and land use planning processes. He agreed that the work plan and specific products were not clearly defined at this point and information the council required in order to consider the funding request could be provided. He stressed the importance of having a plan and system in place in to achieve the WEC goals. He described the collaborative's transition from a self-selected, grassroots initiative to an official organization; at that time membership was discussed and the group decided that members should reflect a broad range of interests and be appointed by the bodies they represented. Ms. Solomon commended WEC for its willingness to undertake the mission. She appreciated being apprised of the collaborative’s activities by email. She indicated she was willing to allocate $40,000 to the effort, but was somewhat nervous about formalizing an agreement between the WEC and the City of Eugene for fear of jeopardizing the collaborative effort. She urged that any agreement be broadly written and not prescriptive in terms of defining the process and outcomes. Ms. Bettman stated that the WEC was requesting $40,000 and a “mantle of authorization” from the council and that concerned her as there was no work program or information on expectations, objectives, products, or what was being authorized. She did not feel that all interests had been involved in the WEC as rail was MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 4, 2007 Page 4 Work Session